Failed to make money on Confederations Cup: cafes and restaurant owners complain about cold summer

The cold summer had a negative impact on the catering in Kazan. Even the Confederations Cup did not meet the expectations, there were less foreign fans than expected, and the restrictions imposed during the time of the tournament in Kazan repelled many tourists not interested in football. The difficulties with parking still add problems for the industry. General decline in profitability of the business leads to the closings of many places. Read the details in the material of Realnoe Vremya.

Failed to make money on the Cup but did groundwork for the World Cup?

The business continues to sum up the results of the Confederations Cup. As it turned out, despite arrival of foreign fans, mass catering failed to earn excess profits on them. As director of Rockstarbar Dilya Novikova told Realnoe Vremya, difficulties arose because of the restrictions.

''We are glad the sporting events ended because they have a negative impact on us. There was the prohibition of strong alcoholic beverages, so we had a decline in revenue, especially one Saturday. Since we do not do sports broadcastings, the public is not ours, but somehow we find ourselves under the attack.''

According to Executive Director of the Association of restaurateurs and hoteliers of Kazan and Tatarstan Galina Sharafutdinova, the reduction of traditional ''non-football'' tourist flow in Kazan also played negative role: people wanted to visit the city as tourists, but because of the security regime in the capital of Tatarstan (additional inspections, restriction of traffic, closure of facilities) they preferred not to come.

At the same time, she said that holding the matches of the Confederations Cup gave a good foundation to increase sport tourist flow in the future:

''We think a lot more fans will come to the World Cup, word of mouth will work out. The guests saw our infrastructure, our capacity, they will talk about Kazan. We are waiting for an influx of tourists, and it is good that such rehearsal was held. The Confederations Cup influenced the following year, but did not give results this year,'' said Galina Sharafutdinova.

Bad weather: ''Some people suffer of war; some people make a fortune off it''

The cold summer had a controversial effect on catering. According to Sharafutdinova, bad weather affects profitability of the places.

''The restaurant market is becoming less profitable because the cost of food is increasing, but we cannot raise prices in the menu, otherwise consumer demand drops. But the margin is becoming lower. Those who have a network of institutions, slightly overlay each other and thereby accumulate profit. Those who has one institution are in a more difficult situation. This trend has always existed, but there are times when there is a surge,'' says Sharafutdinova.

However, according to Novikova from Rockstarbar, rainy weather, on the contrary, forced people in bars.

''People are not going to countysides, for barbecue, but sitting in bars more. On the one hand, we are upset that we ourselves cannot rest, but on the other, it is good that there are more people, and there is no outflow,'' said Novikova.

Galina Sharafutdinova: ''Restaurant market is becoming less profitable because the cost of food is increasing, but we cannot raise prices in the menu otherwise consumer demand drops. But the margin is becoming lower.'' Photo: Maksim Platonov

Commenting on the situation, Galina Sharafutdinova said that the problem woth parking in the centre of the city remains. For the first time the restaurateurs faced with the problems at the beginning of 2015 when in Kazan the so-called ''municipal parking lots'' were introduced, that is, they did a part of parking lots chargeable, and the remaining parking was banned at all.

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